I was just catching up over at The Skeptical Zone after a couple of days cleaning up from Sandy, and I saw a reference to something I thought was too offensive even for UD to host. Turns out I was wrong.

I never argued that God allows rape because He values free will. If I were to make some sort of assertion, it would be that God allows rape because there’s nothing evil about it. So now what?

So now what? So now I know that I was correct in choosing to ignore Mung on every UD thread. He's as ignorant as Joe, no more intelligent, but as thoroughly unpleasant and ethically challenged as Barry. Quite the combination there.

I was just catching up over at The Skeptical Zone after a couple of days cleaning up from Sandy, and I saw a reference to something I thought was too offensive even for UD to host. Turns out I was wrong.

I never argued that God allows rape because He values free will. If I were to make some sort of assertion, it would be that God allows rape because there’s nothing evil about it. So now what?

So now what? So now I know that I was correct in choosing to ignore Mung on every UD thread. He's as ignorant as Joe, no more intelligent, but as thoroughly unpleasant and ethically challenged as Barry. Quite the combination there.

It is curious to me that folks like Mung, Barry, Gordo, Byers, and FL never bother to stop and ask why it is that the bible only mentions punishing those who "choose" (through free will) to commit such acts and omits any mention of actually providing comfort and complete health for the victims. Well, such things used to be curiosities to me until I realized that their god was an arrogant monster of their own imaginings that cheerful goes through eternity holding that all women deserve such treatment.

--------------we IDists rule in design for the flagellum and cilium largely because they do look designed. Bilbo

The only reason you reject Thor is because, like a cushion, you bear the imprint of the biggest arse that sat on you. Louis

I was just catching up over at The Skeptical Zone after a couple of days cleaning up from Sandy, and I saw a reference to something I thought was too offensive even for UD to host. Turns out I was wrong.

I never argued that God allows rape because He values free will. If I were to make some sort of assertion, it would be that God allows rape because there’s nothing evil about it. So now what?

So now what? So now I know that I was correct in choosing to ignore Mung on every UD thread. He's as ignorant as Joe, no more intelligent, but as thoroughly unpleasant and ethically challenged as Barry. Quite the combination there.

Certainly an odd one for an objective-morality jockey to peddle. Turns out rape ain't so bad, which just leaves child molestation and murder. Or maybe they aren't evil either.

It would be useful if this objective morality were packaged in an unequivocal and accessible form. Maybe WJM will pop up and defend Mung, who at least is avoiding the dreadful fate of the 'subjective-moralist', of having no rational basis for their morality ... I expect there's a wider context to Mung's remarks, but I can't be arsed finding what it is.

--------------SoapySam is a pathetic asswiper. Joe G

BTW, when you make little jabs like â€śI thought basic logic was one thing UDers could handle,â€ť you come off looking especially silly when you turn out to be wrong. - Barry Arrington

Certainly an odd one for an objective-morality jockey to peddle. Turns out rape ain't so bad, which just leaves child molestation and murder. Or maybe they aren't evil either.

It would be useful if this objective morality were packaged in an unequivocal and accessible form. Maybe WJM will pop up and defend Mung, who at least is avoiding the dreadful fate of the 'subjective-moralist', of having no rational basis for their morality ... I expect there's a wider context to Mung's remarks, but I can't be arsed finding what it is.

Inside Ann Gauger's lab: YouTube video shows it all! And we are still no stinking apes!"Is There Enough Time For Humans to Have Evolved From Apes? Dr. Ann Gauger Answers"

Second comment by a hugely relieved Joe Coder:

Quote

Not a biologist/paleontologist, but one reason I have doubts with using the fossil record being used to support evolution is that of signal vs noise. Take the wolf and tasmanian wolf, which supposedly diverged 130m years ago from some rat-like therian. Give evolution, the fossils on the left would be more closely related to bats, giraffes, humans, and whales than to its twin on the right. This is a recurring theme among placentals and marsupials.

Sometimes I even wonder if ichthyosaur (reptile, air breathing, live birth, warm blooded, and at the right time) could serve as a link between sharks and cetaceans if somebody ever needed one.

Oh hey, Gauger, is there time enough for your Designer to have designed humans in 5 to 10 million years? You know, the, uh, what was that doing the designing again? Well, does it have the intelligence and perseverance and lifespan (generations, whatever) to design something over millions of years?

If it could do so, then we can get into questions of why it would do so. Like, why are there still apes? Not really much of a question for evolution, but for people who claim purpose behind everything, a crucial question.

No, no answers? Just the assumption that a Designer-God could do anything and everything, and that we shouldn't question it? Yes, that's ID.

--------------"But it's disturbing to think someone actually thinks creationism -- having put it's hand on the hot stove every day for the last 400 years -- will get a different result tomorrow." -- midwifetoad

Joe suspects that Coppedge's alleged poor performance wrt social skills is just due to those whiny customers.

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Nothing in any of that goes to his skill-set. Also without any reasoning it is all meaningless. Ya see as far as you or anyone else knows Coppedge pissed people off because he would not give them what they did not have priviliges for. I have had similar issues and when push came to shove my manager saw through the (internal) customers’ nonsense.

Joe <a href="bit.ly/SXrXnr" target="_blank">suspects</a> that Coppedge's alleged poor performance wrt social skills is just due to those whiny customers.

Quote

Nothing in any of that goes to his skill-set. Also without any reasoning it is all meaningless. Ya see as far as you or anyone else knows Coppedge pissed people off because he would not give them what they did not have priviliges for. I have had similar issues and when push came to shove my manager saw through the (internal) customers’ nonsense.

I bet Joe was a real charmer.

Joe, I'd like Admin privileges for this one, pretty please!You do know how to reassign privileges on this model, don't you?

Joe <a href="bit.ly/SXrXnr" target="_blank">suspects</a> that Coppedge's alleged poor performance wrt social skills is just due to those whiny customers.

Quote

Nothing in any of that goes to his skill-set. Also without any reasoning it is all meaningless. Ya see as far as you or anyone else knows Coppedge pissed people off because he would not give them what they did not have priviliges for. I have had similar issues and when push came to shove my manager saw through the (internal) customers’ nonsense.

I bet Joe was a real charmer.

Heh, and we know how that turned out, right Joe?

--------------Ignored by those who can't provide evidence for their claims.

I'm personally grateful that I have decended from a common ancestor, imagine having to do that all day.

Yes it must be great not having to pay an electricty bill or having to put up with Seventh day Adventists knocking on the front door but think of the down side.

No beer.

The only downside I see is that eventually you have to get out, to find food.

--------------"But it's disturbing to think someone actually thinks creationism -- having put it's hand on the hot stove every day for the last 400 years -- will get a different result tomorrow." -- midwifetoad

I bet the local Hell's Angels chapters are pissed about the pot laws. No more selling to minors, no more huge profit margins.

The union of british columbia municipalities is having this conversation here but don't yet have a united front to present to the province or to Ottawa.

--------------"But it's disturbing to think someone actually thinks creationism -- having put it's hand on the hot stove every day for the last 400 years -- will get a different result tomorrow." -- midwifetoad

I beg to differ. From the tolerance, clarity, and patience, I have seen StephenB, over the last few years, exercise towards those who, IMO, unreasonably disagree with him, I would say StephenB has a far better grasp of the Christian imperative for love than most other Christians I’ve seen on the internet, especially myself!

vjtorley's latest post clocks in at a record-setting 20,350 words.He's making KF look like a piker.

KF, the gauntlet has been laid down. This must not stand. Bydand!

I actually approve of these ultra-long posts. My iPad 1 runs out of ram trying to load them and crashes, thus saving me from wasting my time reading them.

I propose CeilingCat's Conjecture:

"If you take all of the papers ever written, scientific or philosophical, the ones that make sense and are useful tend to be short and concise while the bloviating wastes of time all run over 10k words."

I claim the entire bodies of work of KF, Batshit and VJTorley as evidence. Oh, and the Bible too.

--------------...after reviewing the arguments, Iâ€™m inclined to believe that the critics of ENCODEâ€™s bold claim were mostly right, and that the proportion of our genome which is functional is probably between 10 and 20%. --Vincent Torley, uncommondescent.com 1/1/2016

Having looked at VJ's latest screed (on a PC, not an iPad), I have to note approvingly that it has pictures of a butterfly, an artist's impression of the multiverse (or the Jovian system four and a half billion years ago - it's so hard to tell), a protein, a Scrabble™ board, a highly idealized picture of a flagellum, a highly idealized picture of a type III secretion system, a highly idealized to the point where it's completely blank picture of Ron Numbers, a fossil trilobite, a highly idealized drawing of whale evolution (attributed to "Johnathan M. and Uncommon Descent" with no clue to where he stole it from), a beaver shot (SFW), a humpbacked whale breaching (possibly from the sheer joy of being a highly evolved product of evolution), a Least Weasel along with a semi-latched reprint from a Douglas Axe article attacking a real scientist's paper, a panda that is either eating a piece of bamboo or possibly playing it like a flute (you laugh, but with God, all things are possible) and a fossil "Maiacetus, a whale in the Protocetid family."

And then another 4,056 further words of text. Don't try to tell me this is not a Major ID Article!

One thing does bother me a little bit. In the Doug Axe / Weasel quote, Axe refers to Dawkins' old Weasel program and notes that it is searching for this:

METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL

Then he says that Dawkins claims that this:

WDLMNLT DTJBKWIRZREZLMQCOP

"is somehow manifestly more fit than this:"

WDLTMNLT DTJBSWIRZREZLMQCOP

"but I can’t imagine why it would be, unless the selector (like Dawkins) knows exactly where he wants to go with it. If he does… well, that’s called intelligent design."

Dr. Axe here continues the long ID/YEC tradition of not reading the parts of a paper that make their objections moot. In this case, Dawkins clearly states that he is illustrating the incredible speed advantage of cumulative selection vis-a-vis Creationist style "One fell swoop" selection. He further states that in order to clearly illustrate the difference, he's provided a fixed target so his demonstration can avoid chasing the shifting target of actual evolution.

Following a long ID/UD tradition, Dr. Torley does not get this either.

--------------...after reviewing the arguments, Iâ€™m inclined to believe that the critics of ENCODEâ€™s bold claim were mostly right, and that the proportion of our genome which is functional is probably between 10 and 20%. --Vincent Torley, uncommondescent.com 1/1/2016

Pardon, I have been busy elsewhere (not only with local issues such as that airplane crash of Oct 7th, but with addressing implications of current events for the world and region, cf here, here, here and here — my suspicion is, the first point where things are likely to go off bang, is that we are now very close to disruptive war in the Middle East, with oil spiking to unprecedented levels . . . ), but coming back just now, I see BD to Mung in 126:

--------------And the set of natural numbers is also the set that starts at 0 and goes to the largest number. -- Joe G

Pardon, I have been busy elsewhere (not only with local issues such as that airplane crash of Oct 7th, but with addressing implications of current events for the world and region, cf here, here, here and here — my suspicion is, the first point where things are likely to go off bang, is that we are now very close to disruptive war in the Middle East, with oil spiking to unprecedented levels . . . ), but coming back just now, I see BD to Mung in 126: